Boreal Bikes smrtGRiPs

Boreal Bike’s smrtGRiPS turn your bike into a communications device, making your commute around town that little bit safer and more enjoyable. Connecting to an app on your phone (iOS and Android) via Bluetooth, the grips deliver eyes-free navigation, haptic feedback notifications, and the ability to track your bike.

Instead of giving you audible turn-by-turn directions or forcing you to look down at your handlebars to view a map, the smrtGRiPS deliver directions all by feel. If you need to turn left, your left grip will vibrate. Same goes for the right. Vibrations intensify as you approach the indicated street.

The grips will also vibrate to alert you to road hazards or traffic jams ahead. You can choose to have audible alerts alongside these vibration alerts.

If you can’t find your bike in a sea of locked bikes, the Bike Locator feature will both show you how far away you are from your bike, as well as enable you to call your bike to make it ring and signal its location.

If your bike gets stolen, the app will alert all other smrtGRiPS users in your are. If they come within 100 meters or 330 feet of your bike, you will receive an instant notification of that location. This is probably not going to help as much as a GPS tracker if your bike is on the move but at least it is something.

The smrtGRiPS simply replace the existing grips on your bike–each grip weighs only 92 grams, with a rechargeable battery that will last up to 3 months (assuming 2 hours of riding per day). The smrtGRiPS are waterproof to protect the electronics, so you son’t have to worry about riding in the rain.

For $64, you can pre-order a set of smrtGRiPS but will have to wait for a summer delivery.